2001 Ford Mondeo LX review from UK and Ireland

Many electrical faults.

Clutch operation.

Eats windscreen wiper blades.

On the day I got the car the electric windows failed completely with two partly open, then driving it back to my company to pick up a loan car, little by little all the electrics died, luckily it was daylight, dry, and the engine kept going. The garage had it 2 weeks and I do not know what caused it. (I am not sure they do either)

The day I got it back the central locking stopped working. It would lock then immediately unlock even using the key in the drivers door. second trip to the garage with only 110 miles on the clock...

Following that we had a fairly uneventful year during which I fell in love with the car. The 2.0 diesel engine is very powerful and gives over 45 MPG. It is quite noisy (which somehow I like) and smokes a bit.

Otherwise it is a comfy car that does everything well - especially long distances - London to Dourdogne valley and back for example without any drama.

One year ago, approx 25000 miles the clutch hydraulics packed up - the clutch would not engage fully - resulting in a burnt out clutch.

Minor probs are that it eats windscreen wipers, this has been mentioned at every service, broken washer tank dip stick (very minor for me), the brakes make a loud groan just as the car stops - again the garage either cannot acknowledge of fix.

I really like this car, but I have a problem in that nowdays the main dealers (and this is not just Ford), either do not believe you when you when you mention a problem, or being the driver of a company car, they think it is not that important to you. It is you that will end up stranded at the side of the road if anything goes wrong remember...